Death toll due to shear line in Davao, Caraga rises to 10
The number of people who died due to the effects of the shearline in Caraga and Davao region rose to 10 from seven, the Municipality of Monkayo reported.
In three separate Facebook posts, the Municipality of Monkayo said it retrieved the dead bodies of three women.
Monkayo Mayor Manuel Zamora said they are still looking for four missing persons while one of the injured was sent to a hospital.
He said that retrieval operations resumed on Friday morning.
“Yesterday the retrieval operations were stopped due to heavy rains. That’s why we resumed the retrieval operations at 7 am today together with troops from 25th IB. The chief of police and the NDRRMC are next to each other,” he told dzBB.
“The Red Cross is also there but they haven’t updated since 7 am because they have only reached the area now,” he added.
The public information officer of Monkayo previously said that the landslide that happened at Purok 20, Pag-asa, Mount Diwata was due to heavy rain and an earthquake.
Zamora said that the landslide did not happen in a tunnel.
“Actually there were a lot of people who lived there since the 80s. I think the population swelled in the 1980s when it was my first time in Congress. The residents there were more or less 30,000” he said over dzbb.
“Now, it’s not that many. Maybe there is a time when it reaches 1,000 and a time when it is 500 because that area is regularly being visited by miners. But the place (where the landslide happened) is not a tunnel. That means that the family who had a prayer meeting were outside. Their religion is Assembly of God,” he said.
In a separate interview, Davao de Oro Public Information Chief Fe Maestre said that the rain had stopped in their area.
“The rain has stopped and I hope that it is the same in the 11 other municipalities of Davao de Oro,” she told dzBB.
“There are still some barangays experiencing floods but we hope that since the rain has stopped since last night up to midnight, that they will subside,” she added.
Maestre said the floodwaters were knee-deep and they have recorded 73 flooding and landslide incidents.
She added that there are still some residents left in Mount Diwata.
“There are relocation sites and the residents don’t live in the vicinity that has a geohazard, the area near the tunnel. We cannot prevent people from staying there,” she said.
The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) in a bulletin said that seven were dead while two were injured but they are still subject to validation.
It said that 270,206 persons or 70,862 families were affected.
A total of 14,921 individuals or 4,217 families were served inside evacuation centers.
Five areas are experiencing power interruptions while water has already been restored, it said.
There were no reported interruptions of communication lines.
Four bridges and 11 roads are unpassable while one house was damaged.
According to the NDRRMC, one barangay has been placed under a state of calamity.
The government has provided P6,447,700 worth of assistance to the affected people.
The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) said the shearline would bring cloudy skies and scattered rainshowers and thunderstorms.
It warned of possible flash floods or landslides due to moderate or heavy rains. Jaspearl Tan/DMS
